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Classroom breakfast worries Pasco teachers, who seek alternatives

The United School Employees of Pasco kicked off contract talks on coronavirus working conditions this week.
 
Pasco County students receiving school breakfast must eat it in classrooms this year. Some teachers don't feel comfortable monitoring the meal.
Pasco County students receiving school breakfast must eat it in classrooms this year. Some teachers don't feel comfortable monitoring the meal. [ MARTHA ASENCIO RHINE | Times ]
Published Sept. 10, 2020

Before the coronavirus, Pasco County students could grab a school breakfast and eat it in any designated area before heading to class.

These days, to keep control over social distancing and maintain other health guidelines, the district has told children to eat the meal in their classrooms.

“If they’re outside in big bunches, it’s hard to monitor that,” explained Nora Light, an employee relations supervisor who leads teacher contract negotiations for the district.

Some teachers aren’t comfortable with the new arrangement.

“People are not okay with breakfast in the classroom,” said Lynn Cavall, the United School Employees of Pasco lead negotiator for teacher contracts. “They think it’s a safety issue.”

Specifically, they worry about being in a small space where several people can be unmasked to eat.

During bargaining on Wednesday, the union presented a six-page proposal detailing its recommendations for working conditions during the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike other districts, which debated many of these details before students returned — with some declaring impasse — this marked Pasco’s first formal discussion on the subject.

Many of the proposals closely mirror the district’s school reopening guidelines, which union officials helped craft. The document includes several details related to the teaching of online and in-person students at the same time, an issue that has caused fits in other districts but has not generated loud or formal complaints in Pasco.

In introducing the proposed memorandum of understanding, Cavall jumped straight over the section on simultaneous, or hybrid, learning, to home in on the “Breakfast in the Classroom” portion. It states that the union would not complain about teachers being assigned to extra duty overseeing breakfast, so long as certain conditions are considered.

For instance, it proposed that teachers should be allowed to volunteer to do supervise the meal, and that they may stand outside their classroom door to do so. Teachers who could have qualified for disability accommodations, but agreed to return to school because of the district’s mask policy should receive “accommodations” for the unmasked breakfast period, the union also suggested.

Light said the district doesn’t necessarily see the same amount of wiggle room for monitoring breakfast that the union does. Still, she said, “We will iron it out.”

The discussion didn’t get far on Wednesday, because several participants in the Zoom call lost power shortly after Cavall began talking about breakfast. The sides agreed to resume their conversation on Sept. 16.